Feb. 5 NewMark Merrill to send a revised site plan and an outline of business points that will be required for a NewMark Merrill/Dillard's Reciprocal Easement Agreement (REA) for the new development.

Feb. 8 Dillard's will respond to NewMark Merrill with comments on the site planned REA business points.

Feb. 15 NewMark Merrill/Dillard's will provide a status report to city manager Harold Dominguez and economic development director Brad Power. It will focus on progress to date and outstanding issues.

February 22 NewMark Merrill/Dillard's will provide a status report to Dominguez and Power. It will focus on progress to date and outstanding issues.

March 1 Date by which a binding memorandum of understanding between NewMark Merrill and Dillard's is achieved and upon which the site plan is finalized.

Regal Entertainment Group (United Artists)

Feb. 1 Regal will provide a draft lease for the Twin Peaks Mall site for a new 12-screen theater to NewMark Merrill. (If the weekend is needed to complete the lease draft, Monday, Feb. 4 will be sufficient for the submittal if all parties are informed.)

Feb. 11 NewMark Merrill/Regal will provide a status report to Dominguez and Power. It will focus on progress to date and outstanding issues.

March 1 NewMark Merrill/Regal will provide a status report to Dominguez and Power. It will focus on progress to date and outstanding issues.

March 15 Date by which a lease between NewMark Merrill and Regal is due to be finalized.

LONGMONT -- The redevelopment of Twin Peaks Mall is moving forward, one way or another.

But time is of the essence. A whole series of things have to fall into place by April 1, otherwise the project is in danger of being pushed back at least a year. The mall's owner, NewMark Merrill Mountain States, has letters of intent from some of the key anchors that will be part of the new project. It has lenders interested in supporting the redevelopment if it proceeds as planned. And the International Council of Shopping Centers' annual trade show, looming in May, is where the mall's owners may have the chance to show off plans for the new center, scheduled to open by Christmastime 2014. This, at a time when there aren't many mall redevelopment projects of this scale being done anywhere in the country.

Two bumps in the road, however, need to be smoothed out before April 1 if everything is to move forward.

Allen Ginsborg, managing partner for NMMS, appeared before the Longmont City Council on Tuesday night and expressed his frustration that, after more than a year of negotiations with Dillard's and Regal Entertainment Group, parent company of United Artists Theatres, neither had committed to being a part of the redevelopment. And that is a major problem, he told them.

Dillard's, which owns its own building and the land it sits on, has veto power over virtually anything NMMS would want to do with the property, Ginsborg told them. And Regal, whose lease agreement allows them exclusive rights to operate a movie theater on the site, has been dragging its feet on signing anything.

Ginsborg asked the council -- acting as the Longmont Urban Renewal Authority -- to consider implementing eminent domain as a "last resort" tool to prevent the planned $80 million redevelopment from collapsing. After a lengthy discussion the majority of council agreed, although they vowed to not move forward with that drastic step unless absolutely necessary.

"Sometimes (the threat of eminent domain) helps to move the momentum forward," Ginsborg said Friday.

Following Tuesday night's council discussion, Harold Dominguez, Longmont's city manager, contacted both Little Rock, Ark.-based Dillard's and Knoxville, Tenn.-based Regal and informed them of the council discussion.

David Bouziden, of Freedom Painting Service, Loveland, paints a newly-installed wall at the entrance to the food court area at Twin Peaks Mall on Friday.
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LEWIS GEYER
)

As a result of conversations with those two businesses and with NMMS, the city has put together a timeline that all parties must adhere to. All parties agreed on the timeline, Dominguez said Friday, and if those deadlines aren't met, "we're going to have these discussions (about eminent domain)."

"Eminent domain is an action of last resort, and the intent of the schedule is to demonstrate that if that has presented itself, then we are at a point for an action of last resort," Dominguez said.

Per that schedule, Dillard's and the developer sign a binding memorandum of understanding by March 1. In the case of Regal, since it's a tenant and not a property owner like Dillard's, a signed lease agreement must be in place by March 15.

"We've always wanted Regal and Dillard's as a part of our project," Ginsborg said Friday, adding that he feels like council's action and the timeline have helped lend a sense of urgency to the negotiations.

The city has committed to being a financial partner in the mall's redevelopment, agreeing to commit up to $27.5 million in financing to the project, with all of that money to be paid back from extra sales taxes generated by the redevelopment using tax increment financing.

But in the redevelopment agreement signed by the city and the developer, NMMS must meet a host of conditions, including having a new state-of-the-art movie theater built and having signed lease agreements with certain other tenants.

Putting those conditions in place was necessary from a financial security standpoint, Dominguez said.

"But also the security that Longmont is going to get a project that we collectively want and desire for our community," he said. "We've communicated to everyone that it's important to maintain the financial integrity of the model we've put in place."

Ginsborg knows that to meet the guidelines the city has put in place he needs to be aggressive in landing tenants and securing financing. That's why April 1 is so important, he told council Tuesday night. By that date he has to know whether Dillard's and Regal are in or out.

"That will allow us to move forward on the next level of commitments," Ginsborg said Friday.

A "general merchandise" retailer with at least a 100,000-square-foot store has already committed to be part of the project, and an unnamed natural grocer just signed a letter of intent this past week. Those were both pieces in the redevelopment agreement. But having Dillard's would go a long way to meeting the retail square footage commitment in the agreement, said the city's redevelopment manager, David Starnes.

If the April 1 deadline comes and goes, Ginsborg said, it will wreck the possibility of finding even more retailers he can bring in on the planned timetable. The biggest retail trade show of the year, the International Council of Shopping Centers annual meeting, is in May. And no retailers will be interested in hearing about a project that "might" open in 2015.

"We're focused on getting this project open before the holidays in 2014," Ginsborg said. "We can say, 'We're going to be open for business by Christmas 2014."

Ginsborg said that his intention all along has been to have Dillard's and Regal be part of the redevelopment, but without LURA at least introducing the possibility of eminent domain he didn't feel like deals could be worked out in time.

Regal, he told council, has seemed amenable to the project but has seemed to have a "what's the rush?" attitude. Dillard's, until very recently, has been even more noncommittal. But Ginsborg said just a week ago, he was in Little Rock, meeting with CEO Bill Dillard.

Contacted for this story, Julie Bull, director of investor relations for Dillard's, gave a polite "no comment." And Regal spokeswoman Rachel Lueras said Friday she had spoken with people in her company's real estate department, and they told her they had every expectation that a deal on staying at Twin Peaks can be worked out.

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